*Note: NO Major SPOILERS. Some locations mentioned may be considered spoiler-esque to those who are quite particular, but nothing major enough to make you want to rip my eyes out.

Although the series has ended, Breaking Bad is absolutely brilliant in its characters, setting, and overall story. In the course of watching episode after episode in my free time I eventually arrived at a question: could there be a Breaking Bad video game? My first inclination was no -- the narrative is far too complex to be emulated in a video game. But then I got to thinking of how innovative and effective video games can be in fleshing out narrative these days. I decided to ask my dear friend and roommate if he thought there could be a Breaking Bad video game. After thinking about it for a time, he replied: yes. Thus, the discourse on a Breaking Bad video game begun.

Before I begin, I would like to address what exactly I mean by a Breaking Bad video game. To clarify, I do not mean a mere video game spinoff like what is typical in movie-to-game adaptations. What I specifically mean is a game that tells the same story that Breaking Bad tells with the same emotion and significance of events -- a full scale replication of the story of Walter White. I'm not saying that the game has to have frame for frame accuracy with the show; that wouldn't make for much of a game at all, but what I'm saying is that everything for the most part remains the same: the progression of the characters and the different events that occur must still be there. Without this, the game would lose all authenticity and would become a mere spinoff title. In addition, there would have to be some concessions made to certain areas of the narrative that by no means alter the story being told, but rather augment or over emphasizes certain elements of it for in order to fit better in the gaming environment. So that begs the question: what type of video game could accommodate such a complex narrative? The answer isn't so simple because I believe for it to be effective it couldn't be squeezed into a single genre. Thus, cues would have to be taken from multiple genre's of games to capture it's unique drama, banter, and action. With that said, let's look at the different factors that would make an ideal Breaking Bad video game.

Episodic Format:

Telltale's The Walking Dead was a game that was able to portray an excellent, compelling, and highly emotional story through the use of episodic story structure. I believe this would be the most effective way to portray the Breaking Bad story through a video game. The segmented structure allows for a certain emphasis on the climatic events each episode would contain, which would be crucial seeing how significant the end of each Breaking Bad season is. This kind of emphasis would be a bit lost in a more traditional style of game, even if it were a trilogy of sorts. Not to mention how meaty each part of the story is; cramming it into a singular title would by no means accommodate it's vastness. Episodic format would also accommodate the dynamic nature of the story itself -- it could more flexibly tend to the different season's varying levels of action. In a more traditional game this dynamism would throw off the game's pacing. Simply enough the game could be split into 5 episodes that would be akin to the 5 seasons of the show.

Open Linearity:

Breaking Bad has a rich setting with many interesting people, places, and things to see. Unfortunately, the TV medium doesn't allow the same freedom of exploration that video games can afford. Imagine being able to examine Los Pollos Hermanos more extensively at your own leisure, or wandering about the DEA headquarters taking note of each individuals different desk arrangements, or better yet exploring the many wanders of the laundromat/meth lab. Of course a fast food restaurant, a police department, and a laundromat aren't too interesting in real life, but under the Breaking Bad context these locals become fascinating, and the ability to further inspect them would be highly beneficial to a Breaking Bad game.

To conform to the episodic structure of the game, different locals could be emphasized in each episode given their importance at any given time. However, a true open world would not be well suited for the game. Breaking Bad's story is complex, and thus requires a more linear based game. Also, the liberty to "go anywhere do anything" wouldn't exactly fit the tone of the story. Thus the most effective course would be to have an open linearity of sorts -- each local that is presented in the story could be throughly explored by the player, however, not accessible to the player whenever the player wants. That way, each local could be properly developed, yet still maintain tightness in the story.

Multiple Player-Controlled Protagonist:

The story of Breaking Bad is far too complex to have it limited to the viewpoint of a single protagonist. While, sure, a compelling story could be told through the eyes of Walter, once more that would essentially make the game the same non-authetic spinoff that we're trying to avoid. The complexity of the narrative can only be fully realized when the player has access to the different characters of the show. For the story to be fully fleshed out, the characters of Walter, Jesse, Mike, Skylar, and Hank would need to be accessible. While the characters of Todd, Saul, Lydia, Marie, Gus, Uncle Jack, and Walt Jr. are of course important, the scenes that they're in are usually in the company of one of the aforementioned characters. The ability to access different characters during different parts of the game would also make for better balancing; a section with Walt or Skylar would be more drama base, but the sections with Mike, Hank, or Jesse would be much more action oriented.

Dualistic Gameplay:

This is definitely the trickiest part when considering a Breaking Bad video game. There's too much drama in Breaking Bad to warrant a strictly action oriented game, but on the same token there is enough action to warrant tight responsive shooting and driving controls. So should a more action oriented approach be taken, or a more dramatic approach? The answer: the marriage of both. During the more drama oriented segments, the game could take some cues from the gameplay of Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain. This interactive dialogue would be perfect for allowing the player to explore the different locals while in the conversation, instead of limiting the player to strictly the conversation.

Another thing that a Heavy Rain-esque type of gameplay would accommodate is the actual cooking of meth with it's multiple button prompt sequences. As for the more action oriented sequences, the game could take a few cues from Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series. The tricky part is that the intense driving sections and shootouts would need to feel differently when handled by different characters. Mike and Hank clearly have a lot of training in these areas, but in the hands of Walt and Jesse it would need to feel more sloppy. For the sake of gameplay, some of the shootouts and driving sections would need to be a bit more exaggerated than they actually were in the show.

But what do you think? If there was a Breaking Bad video game, what would you like to see out of it? Would it even be possible? Sound off in the comments below.